IPL 9: Hyderabad pacers rattle Gujarat Lions

Aaron Finch’s unbeaten 51 came as a face-saving knock for the Gujarat Lions. (Photo: Deepak Deshpande)

Some truly impressive bowling by the Sunrisers Hyderabad restricted table-toppers Gujarat Lions to an underwhelming 126/6 in their Indian Premier League match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium here on Friday.

Aaron Finch hit an unbeaten 51 (3x4, 1x6) but could not stop his team from recording their second straight uninspired batting show against the soaring Eagles.

Mustafizur Rahman (2/17) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/28) were the pick of the bowlers for the home side.

Electing to field, Sunrisers smothered the Lions, squeezing all attacking intent out of them over the course of 20 overs. Of course, the Suresh Raina-led didn’t help their cause any, losing four wickets inside the first eight overs, having scored only 34 runs. This despite some generous fielding by the Sunrisers, including a grassed chance off the dangerous Brendon McCullum.

The Eagles gave the 30,000-strong crowd had plenty to cheer about right from the start, and the home fans gladly obliged, shouting themselves hoarse as the neither MCCullum nor his opening partner, Dwayne Smith, managed even a squeak off the first 13 deliveries.

Feeling stifled, Smith slashed Bhuvneshwar straight to Rahman at short third man. Raina walked in and tried to dominate the bowlers into submission but his stay at the crease was cut short — 20 off 10 deliveries — when he was caught and bowled by Bhuvneshwar. This compounded Raina’s woeful form. The southpaw hasn’t crossed the fifty-run mark in six innings.

The impressive Rahman then removed Dinesh Karthik for a duck, with the score at 25, thanks to a truly spectacular catch by Kane Willia-mson. The New Zealander, fielding at backward point, flung himself to his left and just about got his fingers under the ball. The catch was referred to the third umpire, who sided with the Sunrisers, leaving the Lions thoroughly rattled.

McCullum was the next to depart for seven off 19 deliveries. Finch was joined by West Indian allrounder Dwayne Bravo. The pressure was on the pair to take the Lions to a respectable total and Bravo said, “No thanks!” as he holed out in the deep off the bowling off Barinder Sran, for 18 (20 deliveries).

All this while, Finch carried on in an uncertain manner in an attempt to keep his team afloat.

Scoreboard Gujarat Lions: D.R. Smith c Mustafizur Rahman b Kumar 1, B. McCullum c Warner b Henriques 7, S. Raina c&b Kumar 20, K.D. Karthik c Williamson b Mustafizur Rahman 0, A.J. Finch (not out) 51, D. Bravo c sub b Sran 18, R. Jadeja c Kumar b Mustafizur Rahman 18, P. Kumar (not out) 6. Extras: (w 5) 5. Total: (for 6 wkts, in 20 overs) 126. FoW: 1-2, 2-24, 3-25, 4-34, 5-79, 6-106. Bowling: Kumar 4-1-28-2, Nehra 4-1-23-0, Rahman 4-0-17-2, Sran 3-0-21-1 (2w), Henriques 3-0-24-1 (2w), Yuvraj 2-0-13-0 (1w)